How Semrush grew non-branded search traffic

Semrush has gained a reputation as one of the best SEO tools on the market. After building a team to grow SEO performance, they needed to improve existing content while establishing high quality standards to take their organic growth to the next level.

Semrush needed a content engine to capture more search visibility

Semrush is home to some of the best marketing talent in the world. Following their acquisition of Backlinko in 2022, the content team quickly grew to adopt a product-led philosophy for SEO content.

To achieve this, they needed to build a roster of talented editors, writers, and agency partners to help them reach their ambitious production goals. Which is where Grizzle comes in.

Grizzle helped Semrush produce high-quality content at scale

Producing content at a high volume is no easy feat. Doing so while maintaining your tone-of-voice and a high bar for quality is even more challenging. It requires the right talent, training, and content operations that won’t buckle under pressure.

Luckily, both Semrush and Grizzle have it in spades. Together, we produced content that delights readers while increasing search traffic and trial sign-ups.

1. Product-led content that ranks and converts

Embedding your product as a solution to user problems and jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) adds value and increases product awareness in a contextual manner. Semrush advocated for this approach from the very beginning of our engagement, allowing us to hit the ground running.

Getting the right balance is tricky. Overdoing product mentions will turn readers off and reduce dwell time. But it's difficult to contribute to business goals when underselling your product's value.

The best way to do this is by coupling DIY approaches with relevant feature walkthroughs:

Readers are given everything they need to solve their problems by themselves. Or, they can sign up for a free Semrush trial and use the product to speed up the process.

2. Meeting and defining high-quality editorial standards

Scaling content production volume is a common request we hear as an agency. But you can’t jump right into 20 to 30 articles a month right out of the gate.

To ramp up, you need a strong foundation. This means detailed content guidelines, getting the right talent in the right seats, and setting standards for each piece of content.

For Semrush, this meant starting at four articles a month. We use these initial projects to collaborate with them on content guidelines, get writers up to speed, and build out a team of editors and strategists.

From here, we can ramp up and meet the ambitious goals Semrush are hungry for.

3. Scaling content operations to 30+ articles a month

With the foundations set, we were slowly able to ramp up production to over 30 articles a month.

Our process for ramping up content production looks like this:

1. Writer recruitment and training: Sourcing, vetting, and training writers with marketing subject matter expertise.
   
   
2. A strong editorial  team: Talent density is critical for an agency like Grizzle. We hire and nurture the best editors and strategists in the game.
   
   
3. Smooth content operations: Robust yet flexible processes allow us to keep projects on track and deliver content at scale with minimal hiccups.
   
   
4. Detailed feedback and unlimited revisions: Writers need guidance in order to improve. Further, getting it right doesn’t always happen the first time, which is why we make revisions until our clients are satisfied.
   

Finally, as Semrush built out their own team of writers and editors, we guided and trained them on our editorial processes and mutual benchmark for great content, making our partnership truly collaborative.

Semrush's partnership with Grizzle helped increased organic traffic and content velocity

Grizzle has produced over 160 articles for Semrush to date, contributing to a 64% increase in non-branded search traffic.

Folding seamlessly into Semrush’s existing operations made  life easier, but none of this would have been possible without Semrush’s vision or dedication to quality.